A Niagara MPP says Premier Doug Ford needs to gift surplus WSIB money to injured workers.
NDP MPP Wayne Gates, who is the Official Opposition critic for Worker's Health and Safety, says Ford shouldn't give the extra money accumulated by the Workers Safety and Insurance Board to corporations.
"It’s already hard for injured workers to get the help they deserve. Now, it looks like Ford is planning to make the system even more barebones by giving surplus money to big corporations, instead of making sure it’s there for injured workers."
According to the Ontario Network of Injured Workers, employees who are injured at work experience nearly four times the poverty rate in Ontario.
Gates says those injured on the job are facing more and more obstacles with getting help from the WSIB.
"Legitimately injured workers are getting less and less help from the WSIB," said Gates. "It is obscene that injured workers, mistreated for years to meet the financial goals of the WSIB, would not be the very first consideration for support in the event of any surplus."
He's calling on the province to pass his bill, the Respecting Injured Workers Act, which he says would provide more compensation to injured workers.
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